PSA: Gets 2 Give is not a deal site! Its about building a community interface and support system. The deals are simply a means to an end, a way for us to build a self-liquidating system that empowers, promotes and benefits us all. This isn’t selling out, this is taking an active role in shaping the type of community that contributes to an entrepreneurial eco system. It takes a village. Be a part of our village. Even if deals don’t work for your business or you just aren’t sold yet, you can still help support other businesses in the community that DO and that WILL use this. By adding your business to the directory, you are saying “Hey, I support you!” By sharing your code and asking your customers and friends and family to “follow” you on Gets 2 Give, you are helping every other business get in front of one more potential customer. Not to mention, you are telling every short staffed and short funded nonprofit out there trying to make a difference that they are valued and they are important and that you want to be a part of the foundation that raises them up to continue doing more good.

You are NOT alone!! Deal sites can be ahhhmazing for some businesses, but not all. How they are set up, so-o-o-o-o-o-o many ways that businesses can fall into this fire pit. But we aren’t a deal site ^ see above ^. We want to create a support system that is there for companies who need/want more business; that is there for nonprofits when the level of charity needed exceeds the level of charity financed; that is there for the new startup thats just trying to gain ground in a tough market; that is there for the business owners that don’t have enough hours in the day; that is there for the organization that just lost a big donor and can’t make ends meet; that is there for every single person type and place in our community.

Here’s how Gets 2 Give is different from other deal sites:

Only run a deal when you need it. Once your business is registered, its super easy to get a deal up and running within seconds. Since we use an SMS campaign as opposed to a traditional email campaign, people see it immediately and it isn’t lost within a junk box, under a bunch of other deals, etc.

Set limits. Specify times of day, one per user, one per table, minimum purchases, total amount sold, total amount sold per day, specific items, require them to fill out a comments card or review, new customers only, etc. – the options are limitless, but your deal shouldn’t be (see what we did there).

Make sure your costs are covered. All deal sites give you the same spill, its advertising costs. While that is in fact true, you’ve still got to cover your costs. With normal advertising routes, you pay upfront and know exactly what you are signing up for and what you will be spending. Not so with deal sites, and that’s scary and that can do more harm than good. What if hundreds of people buy your deal and cash it in at the exact same time. Not only are you now overburdened with a massive intake of discounted customers, taking away from regular priced paying customers, but you’re also placing strain on your profit margin for the day that (as a small business) you may be very dependent on for the following days or months. We don’t want this to happen, and we do care about what happens after the deal purchase is complete.

We hear ya, you’re a business and you’ve gotta make money. From now until the end of August, businesses will get 70% of all deals. But we have to be able to support ourselves as well. For any and all of this to work, we have to cover our costs. We accrue all of the expenses prior to sell – advertising, SMS fees, etc. We’ve created an extensive algorithm that factors in the SMS campaigns, marketing campaigns, ads, diversity among deal prices, and so much more based on historical data from other relatively similar businesses to settle on the percentage breakdown of where it is now. However, this is not a set-in-stone figure, it is very fluid. We’ve built the algorithm to show us the perfect percentage breakdown as we grow. With that said, we will NEVER drop your percentage unless it was a specific promotion with a written end date. But do we want to make that percentage higher, heck yeah, and the first chance we can, we will! We don’t want to be the next big thing, we just want to turn our community into a self-sustaining machine.

Ok. fine. don’t do a deal. Just kidding, we’re not salty. See the first point, this isn’t about deals. If or when you ever do choose to submit a deal, its crazy easy if you’re already registered. But also being registered PRIOR to running a deal works best because you can build up your following ahead of time. Just like sharing your Facebook and Instagram links, you can share your Gets 2 Give link. You can even print off your special QR code found in your Gets 2 Give business dashboard and place it at your business, on tables, on the door, etc. When people scan your QR code, they automatically follow you – easy peasy (yeah, we said it). Have marketing material? Don’t just put the link, or a QR code to the link, we’re giving you a QR code that automatically adds them to your followers! We kinda love this feature if you couldn’t tell. Because its awesome. Grow your followers, and then if or when you do ever decide to post a deal, your audience is primed and ready for it!

SHOW US YOUR WAYS!! But seriously, will you help us? Especially in the beginning, we need big and small fish. Will you tell your people about our program? When the community prospers, everyone prospers.

Gets 2 Give isn’t a deal site. After working with nonprofits for years our founders realized that, regardless of the size or support of a nonprofit, they all have one thing in common: the charity needed, exceeded the charity given. They rely heavily on corporate donors and gifts, so much so that when they lose those donors, there are crippling results. We can’t continue financing social good this way. We needed to find away to incorporate charitable contributions into every day living because it is the responsibility of every one in the community to actively participate. Unfortunately, many people either can’t afford to, don’t know how to or (gasp!) don’t care enough to. By using a deal system, we can enable those who want to give but can’t, and encourage those who just don’t care, all while also promoting local businesses. It’s not a deal site, its the future of our community.